Ok, I have the cutest sis-in-law and niece EVER!

Tamsin (my father-in-law’s kid) and Star (my brother-in-law’s kid)

Thanks to a glowing recommendation from the Gothamist (love that site), we headed down to the Imaginasian Theatre to catch Katsuhito Ishii’s Taste of Tea.

It’s like Little Miss Sunshine in Japan, only weirder and lovelier. I love movies that stretch the boundaries of what we think we know movies to be.

So the resentment has apparently spread. In Aug 2003, Pat and I were walking hand-in-hand in the Castro where we lived and we heard a comment “What’s up with this guys with girls thing?” in a not very friendly tone.

Now, the Castro is worrying they are losing their “identity”.

But some gay and lesbian residents of the Castro are worried that the culture and history of their world-famous neighborhood could be lost in the process, and they have started a campaign to preserve its character. The city, meanwhile, is spending $100,000 on a plan aimed at keeping the area’s gay identity intact.

Heterosexuals “are welcome as long as they understand this is our community,” said Adam Light, a leader in the Castro Coalition, a group formed eight months ago to address the shifts in the neighborhood in recent years.

It all sounds a little strange to me that gay people who have been discriminated for so long (and still are in most places) would want to discriminate as well. I guess it makes sense for the sake of say, promoting tourism in a unique neighbourhood (because gosh-darn-it, Castro is in so many awesome ways, a unique place), but wouldn’t it be a signal of complete community acceptance when there will not be neighbourhoods based on sexual preferances?

San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau chief Joe D’Alessandro, who lives in the Castro with his gay partner and their six children, said he thinks gay enclaves marginalize the people who live there. He said the gay community in his previous home of Portland, Ore., a city without a historically gay neighborhood, is a model because gay and lesbian residents comfortably live in the mainstream.

I got an email flyer to watch Richard Lewis at Comix for half-price, so we went.

He was SO bad. His warm-up act was by far better than he was. He was unprofessionally unprepared. Incessant ramble…which we understand was his signature style…but it wasn’t even funny. Halfway through, he lost his audience. People were falling asleep literally left and right. It was embarrassing. I wondered why the crowd was so polite about it though…some heckling would have at least spiced up the worst stand up performance ever.

I guess we are lucky to pay only half-price…now we only feel half ripped off.

The BOOBS are no more. The last of the BOOBS has announced his FOOB status. Congrats! By Aug 08, all will be HOOBS. Although technically speaking, 2 of 4 OBS are no longer OBS.

Congratulations all around…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we are 4 blessed bitches and they blessed BOOBS–>FOOBS–>HOOBS.

P.S. If this post made no sense to you, never mind…

Recall my compalining about the lack of cheap used books in Singapore.

After a 2 year dearth, I found an AMAZING source in the US, aptly named Thriftbooks.com.

I paid between US$0.01-3.50 for the books I bought. Shipping costs more than the book at US$3.45 for the first one and US$2.59 for additional books…but it’s still pretty darn cheap.

My first shipment arrived yesterday. I obtained:

• Middlesex (Eugenides) – $1.72
• Perfume (Suskind) – $0.01
• War and Peace (Tolstoy) – $0.86
• Daniel Deronda (Eliot) – $0.75
• The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) – $0.01
• The Good Earth (Buck) – $0.01
• Romola (Eliot) – $0.01
• Running with Scissors (Burroughs) – $3.50
• Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) – $1.77
• Planet of the Apes (Boulle) – $0.99
• The Color Purple (Walker) – $0.01
• Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) – $1.51
• Summer Crossing (Capote) – $2.77

Shipping – $34.53
Total – $48.45

That’s approximately $3.73 per book! I am soooo happy!

I randomly picked The Good Earth as my first book of the shipment to read and in the 2nd page, there is a quote by the author:

I am always glad when any of my books can be put into an inexpensive edition, because I like to think that any people who might wish to read them can do so. Surely books ought to be within the reach of everybody

AMEN!

Now this is just silly. Pillow fight in NYC this Saturday.

I was that wuss that hated pillow fights as a kid. All that thumping in the head gave me a massive headache.

In Singapore, we call that boh-liao. But it’s all this boh-liaoness (re: all the San Francisco parades) that makes the city vibe, methinks.

It was definitely a strange one yesterday. As I was walking past Grand Central Station, trying to avoid the sludge in the street, this guy taps me on the shoulder and says “Hi, I think you are so pretty and I just wanted to give you my business card” and promptly walks away. No follow-up, nothing. Just like that.

I checked the company name on his card and apparently he is president of a investment management company. So I guess that was his selling point? He hands out his card to women in the streets like a flyer, the ladies do their research, and finds out he is probably very rich and the interested parties call him back…?

How efficient, how very New York.

More food reviews. We have been eating out less and cooking more lately, it’s far cheaper. But good recommendations so far:

Union Square Cafe
Business lunch. Union Square
This is apparently a very famous restaurant. Went there on a business lunch when our Deputy Chairman was in town. The service was very la-di-da excellent (waiter was extremely cute, straight cute too). Prices were good because it was Restaurant Week in NYC then. I did not go with what the cute waiter recommended (the skate, like sting-ray), and ordered the shrimp instead and it was very very average; I had a taste of the skate and it was excellent. D’oh.
Will kellykelly return? Probably not, unless invited to another all expense-paid business meal.

Cafe Centro
Business lunch. Midtown.
Went there on a business lunch on Monday. I learnt from my lesson at Union Square Cafe and went with what the waiter recommended: excellent excellent jumbo crabcakes and really good chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It was a wonderful meal, but right after the meal, I started to get a little nauseous and the nausea came on and off for the next few days (still a little churn here and there today). I don’t know if it was the food or just me. Given my history with bad stomach in recent months, I’d give the food a benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to this weak tummy of mine.
Will kellykelly return? Just maybe. Food was great, but too expensive to go regularly.

Burger Joint @ Le meridian
Recommended by my colleagues. Midtown
Hidden behind a curtain in the lobby of a fancy hotel (god knows why it’s there), there was a loooong queue to eat there (New Yorkers love to queue). Complete hole-in-the-wall. Absolutely packed but the burgers were sinfully divine.
Will kellykelly return? As good as the burgers were, I don’t like burgers enough to deal with the crowd. The queue was simply too long, and the place too crowded. We ended up sitting at the bar stools next to the grill. It was like eating at Maxwell Road hawker centre at peak lunch hour…well, kinda. It’s too stressful. I like my meals non-stress.

Sapporo
Recommended by my colleagues. Midtown
Another near-office lunch joint recommended by my colleagues. They have been spot-on with food so far. We had to stand in line for about 10-15min (always a queue in New York), but it was worth it. Really good ramen noodles, with just the right bounce and texture. Reminiscent of Saburi. Good prices (about US$7-8 for each HUGE HUGE bowl of ramen). The broth was a tad bit too salty, but I’ll just ask for less salt next time.
Will kellykelly return? Definitely could become a regular lunch joint.

Kiku
Random find. Park Slope
This place is right next door to us…literally 5 steps away. We have been there twice. Good sushi, better than Yamato, the last sushi we had in Park Slope. It’s not the best (I miss wisma sushi!), but it is good with good prices (US$2 for each salmon sushi piece; US$9-13 for a special roll).
Will kellykelly return? Already go there twice already. It’s right next door, it’s good with good prices…YES!

Today, I went for an allergy test. The doctor put green spots on my arm with markers, then used droppers to put various sorts of allergens next to the marked spots (about 14 of them), then pricked me with needles where the drops were, then wiped off the remaining drops. You aren’t supposed to know what each drop was until after the test. Doctor said knowing could trigger a psychosomatic response. I didn’t even know that the 2 extra drops she put on my upper arm were merely ‘controls’; one is suppose to be a placebo, the other is something that everyone should have a reaction to. I felt like a lab rat.

After 20 minutes, my entire arm was red with little mosquito-bite-like bumps on them. The results? I’m allergic to:

• Feathers
• Cats
• Dogs
• Mold (she tested for 2 types)
• Dust mites
• Weed (haha)
• Grass (haha)

So, I’m allergic to everything she tested for expect COCKROACH (Tree was inconclusive). Go figure.

In the meantime, my asthma was really acting up in the cold dry air when I first moved here. My nose was constantly stuffed, I was wheezing a lot. I had medication to control it but tried not to use them in case they created dependency. Well, I guess it’s too late for that now. When I saw the allergy/asthma specialist here in New York, she told me how to use the medications in a specific way that my doctor in Singapore wasn’t very clear about. Turns out that I was supposed to use the Advair inhaler every day, morning and night, and never use it when I am already wheezing, which I have been doing for the past year. D’oh. So I heeded those instructions plus used a nasel spray every morning and night as well. In about 2 days, my entire sinus cleared up. I don’t think I have felt this good for an entire year and a half. I haven’t wheezed at all since. Amazing.

I really don’t like the idea of the drugs being so effective so quickly, especially with a drug that has been controversial. It seems advair can result in more severe asthma attacks in future for a small number of users. It is stated in the drug’s fine print. But then, like this guy, it’s clearly helped me. I’d like to do it the natural way. I tried using a neti pot, but that seemed to stuff me up more. Western medication man…it works so quickly, but the possible long-term effects are kinda freaky.

Bring on the roaches!